A Holiday Finish

It's been a long time since I finished a quilt so it was nice to pull this from the dryer last night and say:  "Done!"

I quilted a small loopy line in the red sashing...

....and an even larger loopy line around the outside border.

The quilting didn't look too bad before washing and it looked great (imho) after it was washed and dried.

I got the idea for this quilt from a tutorial by Missouri Star Quilt Company.  The finished quilt is about 57" square and is now draped over the back of the sofa in the living room.

A Little Quilting

I have three quilts that need to be finished before the end of the year.  I didn't exactly leave them til the last minute...  somehow, five fractured ribs and a fractured thumb can throw a monkey wrench into the works!

I decided to finish up my throw-size Christmas quilt first and am doing the same loopy-line quilting on it that I used on the table runner for my daughter... except with much larger loops.

I plan to do a smaller/narrow looping quilting line in the red sashing and go back to the larger loops in the border.   I'm using a medium gray thread that is blending well.  I would like to finish up the quilting this morning and then bind it this afternoon.   Must keep quilting because....

Wednesday Ramblings

Yesterday, I had to drive to north Raleigh, NC for an appt with a Workers Comp-approved doctor about my thumb.  My daughter met me in Cary and went with me to the appt.  We did a little shopping and had lunch before the appt.  

I can't believe the sales going on... especially in JoAnn's where we went looking for wide holiday ribbon for a project my daughter has in mind.   Me... I wanted to pick up a couple of bottle brush trees for the manger next to the feather tree..... and I found a set of 7 trees (and 2 "shrubs") for $20 at 60% off!   I snapped that right up!

I remembered I had seen a cool tutorial on Pinterest where you can bleach and dye the bottle brush trees but opted not to tackle that this year.  However, I'd like to share the tutorial with you because if you'd like pastel trees...

Photo courtesy of Makin' Projiks

... it's easy to do as well.   These are the exact trees I purchased yesterday but there are lots of different brands available...  and you can choose any colors you'd like.

Photo courtesy of Craftnosis

Pretty much the bleaching and dying involves a couple of "baths"...

 

 Photo courtesy of Craftnosis

 

Complete instructions are found HERE.

 Photo courtesy of The Simple Things

 

There is a cool video tutorial on Elderberry Street if you'd like to do something super fancy!   And then the decorating is up to you....

 Photo courtesy of One Lucky Day

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Another proud aunt moment:  Join us tonight for Coast Guard: HMS Bounty Rescue starting at 8/7c. We have the honor of hosting a live chat with Lt. Jenny Fields. She is a pilot at Air Station Elizabeth City and was piloting one of the rescue crews in the HMS Bounty mission.

 

Do you have questions for Lt. Fields about the rescue mission during Hurricane Sandy? She will be answering your questions live tonight for one hour starting at 8/7c during the special. Please join us.  (If you have questions for Lt. Jenny, please ask them on The Weather Channel Facebook page and not here. Thank you.)